Open AccessLight-trapping in photon enhanced thermionic emitters
Author(s) -
Jerónimo Buencuerpo,
Jorge Cardona Lloréns,
Pierfrancesco Zilio,
Waseem Raja,
João Cunha,
Alessandro Alabastri,
Remo Proietti Zaccaria,
Antonio Martı́,
T. W. Versloot
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.23.0a1220
Subject(s) - thermionic emission , optics , materials science , common emitter , photonic crystal , optoelectronics , trapping , photon , irradiance , quantum optics , coating , photonics , physics , electron , ecology , quantum mechanics , composite material , biology
A series of photonic crystal structures are optimized for a photon enhanced thermionic emitter. With realistic parameter values to describe a p-type GaAs device we find an efficiency above 10%. The light-trapping structures increases the performance by 2% over an optimal bilayer anti-reflective coating. We find a device efficiency very close to the case of a Lambertian absorber, but below its maximum performance. To prevent an efficiency below 10% the vacuum gap must be dimensioned according to the concentration factor of the solar irradiance.